"All Men---Make a Difference!" is the theme designated by the Joint United
Nations Program on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immunodeficiency
Syndrome (AIDS) for this year's World AIDS Day, December 1, 2000. This year's theme
encourages men to increase their awareness of the risk for HIV infection for themselves, their
sex partners, and their families and to use their influence to help stem the HIV/AIDS
epidemic. In the United States, most persons living with HIV infection and AIDS are men.
Some men's behavior often places their sex partners at risk for infection. In cultures where
there is a substantial imbalance in men's and women's social power, focusing
prevention efforts on men is an essential step toward reducing HIV transmission.
As of June 2000, AIDS was reported among 753,907 persons in the United States,
and 438,795 of these persons have died; an estimated 311,701 persons were reported to
be living with AIDS (1). Although deaths from AIDS began to decline in the United States
in 1996, primarily because of the use of effective combination antiretroviral therapy,
AIDS deaths and AIDS incidence trends began to level by 1999
(2). Since 1992, HIV incidence in the United States has been relatively stable; an estimated 40,000 new HIV infections
are expected to occur each year. Prevalence of HIV infection (number of persons living
with HIV and AIDS) at the end of 1998 ranged from 800,000--900,000. Among these
persons, approximately one third do not know they are infected with HIV
(2). In addition, approximately 4% of the U.S. population (approximately 4--5 million persons) engage in
behaviors that put them at high risk for HIV infection
(3).
Worldwide, 36.1 million adults are living with HIV/AIDS; of these, 5.3 million
became infected in 2000 (4). Of the approximately 21.8 million persons who have died from
AIDS, 3.0 million died in 2000. Of all persons living with HIV, 90.0% live in sub-Saharan
Africa, southeast Asia, or Latin America (4).
Additional information about World AIDS Day and HIV infection and AIDS is
available from CDC's National Prevention Information Network, telephone (800) 458-5231, and
on the World-Wide Web, http://www.cdcnpin.org; CDC's National AIDS and STD
hotline, telephone (800) 342-2437; and CDC's Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center
for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention World-Wide Web site, http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/dhap.htm.
References
CDC. HIV/AIDS surveillance report. Atlanta, Georgia: US Department of Health
and Human Services, CDC, 2000;12:1.
CDC. HIV/AIDS surveillance update (in press).
Anderson J. Measuring the impact of prevention policy on behavior in the
United States: data from national surveys [poster]. Presented at the XIII International
AIDS Conference, Durban, South Africa, July 9--14, 2000.
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. AIDS epidemic update. Geneva,
Switzerland: World Health Organization, December 2000:3--5.
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